On Wednesday I went to see Thom Yorke play at The Fox Theater in Oakland with his new band Atoms For Peace. Thanks to Ting for the ticket! The band is a super-group with a very impressive lineup:

Thom Yorke - The  always-entertaining Radiohead singer on guitar and vocals.

Nigel Godrich – Radiohead’s mad scientist producer, out from behind the curtain to play guitar, keyboard and laptop.

Joey Waronker - A top LA studio drummer who has also toured with Beck and many more.

Mauro Refosco – A bad ass multi-percussionist with a a very impressive box of toys.

Flea - Yes, that Flea: The Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist, laying down funk-metal grooves for the foundation.

This was one of nine shows on the Atoms of Peace tour and quite possibly their only tour ever. As I waited, standing about twenty five feet back in the beautiful Fox Theater (the new APE venue which is very similar to The Warfield but much more grand), I thought for sure that this would be one of the top ten best shows I had ever seen.

Review:

Finally the lights went out and the band came on. Within minutes of the first song it was clear that this show would not make my top ten; not even close. For some reason I expected Atoms for Peace to be just as tight and well-oiled of a machine as Radiohead, a band of musicians who have been writing and touring together for over twenty years. That was foolish. No level of individual musicianship could ever equal the bond of twenty years of collaboration. In the end, Thom Yorke’s new band came off as exactly what they are: thrown together for a short tour.

It was still a great show. The drummers remained extremely tight and fun to dance to for the duration of the night. Maura Refosco played tons of different crazy instruments including hand drums, a berimbau and two giant shakers that looked like medieval maces. It makes sense that Thom would want a groovy rhythm section; he is a dancer. He danced for pretty much the entire set, and it was awesome.

Although he occasionally played keyboard swells and a bit of guitar, Nigel Godrich’s main job seemed to be running backing tracks off of his laptop. There were a lot of backing tracks, which at times was a bit of a bummer; too many tracks can make a set feel like karaoke. Most songs luckily had enough real musicianship to avoid this effect.

I wish I could have heard Flea better, but for most of the set the backing bass tracks were drowning him out and it was hard to tell what (or if) he was playing. Towards the end he had a few moments to shine where he came to the center of the stage and went into some funky bass lines. They were classic Flea, which was funny and somewhat out of place in the context of the rest of the band, but definitely something that everyone in the crowd was excited to see. He did it pretty well. Overall he didn’t groove as well as the rest of the rhythm section, but he did give an inspired theatrical performance (which sometimes also seemed out of place).

So did this concert make history?